Saikyo Jump is celebrating 40 years of Akira Toriyama's beloved shonen franchise, Dragon Ball, with its monthly Dragon Ball Super Gallery showcase -- a lineup of fresh artistic takes on classic Dragon Ball covers. This month's entry is from Hiroyuki Asada, creator of the steampunk fantasy manga Tegami Bachi, or Letter Bee.
Shonen Jump News (or @WSJ_manga), a Dragon Ball-focused news hub on X (formerly Twitter), recently showcased Asada's entry for its followers. This piece, which pays tribute to the cover of Dragon Ball Volume 35, features a version of Spirit Goku drawn in Asada's signature shojo-esque art style. Surrounded by sparkling accents, the spiky-haired Saiyan is shown bidding farewell to his friends before departing for the other world -- a design that was potentially chosen as a heartwarming sendoff to the late Akira Toriyama, who passed away in early March.
Naruto, Bleach, Spy x Family and Other Creators Have Previously Paid Tribute to Dragon Ball
Dragon Ball's 40th Anniversary Super Gallery is a long-running franchise tribute that kicked off in Saikyo Jump's September 2021 issue. Each month, the magazine features a piece of artwork inspired by one of Dragon Ball's original volume covers. Out of the planned 42 entries, 34 have already appeared in the pages of Saikyo Jump. The event is scheduled to conclude with the final entry this November. Iconic artists from all across Japan have already contributed to the gallery, including Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto), Tite Kubo (Bleach), Tatsuki Fujimoto (Chainsaw Man), Koyoharu Gotouge (Demon Slayer) and Tatsuya Endo (Spy x Family). Naho Oishi, the main artist for Dragon Ball SD -- a version of the original story designed for young children -- was last month's participant. Her entry paid tribute to Volume 18, which playfully depicted Goku's son Gohan as a drag-racer.
The next Super Gallery entry will be drawn by none other than Toyotarou, who serves as the main official illustrator for the Dragon Ball Super manga series. While the series went on hiatus shortly after Toriyama's death, the franchise has since confirmed that the manga will eventually return to the pages of V-Jump magazine. Additionally, Toei Animation has also assured fans that it is not halting production on the upcoming anime series Dragon Ball Daima, which Toriyama was closely involved with prior to his death. Currently, the series is still scheduled to premiere this fall.
Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee Is a Steampunk Shonen Jump Series With Shojo-Esque Character Designs
Hiroyuki Asada's Letter Bee manga was originally serialized in Monthly Shonen Jump magazine from September 2006 to June 2007. The series featured a novel combination of action, fantasy and steampunk elements that quickly set it apart from Shonen Jump's usual fare. Set in an underground world known as AmberGround, government agents known as "Letter Bees" are trained to deliver packages while dealing with large armored insects known as Gaichu who frequently target them. The main protagonist is a young man named Lag Seeing, who is inspired to become a Letter Bee after a fateful childhood encounter with an agent named Gauche. One day, Gauche mysteriously disappears, only to turn up later with no memory of his past. Meanwhile, the Letter Bees begin to encounter opposition from a resistance movement known only as "Reverse." Asada is also known for their work on Tezuka Productions and MAPPA's 2019 anime adaptation of the Dororo manga.
Both Letter Bee and Dragon Ball are available in English from VIZ Media. Toei Animation's respective anime adaptations, which include Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super, are available to stream on Hulu and Crunchyroll for viewers in most major regions.
Source: X (formerly Twitter)
